Nashville Mayor Karl Dean to Use $10 Million of Public Education Funds to Renovate KIPP, Inc. School

Karl Dean has just shown a level of arrogance and disregard for the responsibilities of his office that has to impress even Prince Bloomberg.  Dean has decided to take 10% of the amount he has set aside for public school renovation during his whole term to renovate a single Metro property that is leased by the total compliance segregated charter chain, KIPP, Inc.

It's not exactly as if KIPP does not have the money to do their own renovation, with hundreds of millions in donations from every vulture philanthropy fund and every corporate foundation and every big time philanthrocapitalist.  The voters of Nashville already recognize this as the grossest form of corporate welfare that has come their way in a long time. 

Meanwhile, legitimately-public schools have leaking roofs and children eating lunch in the hallways.

A clip from the Tennesseean:

Erick Huth, president of the Metro Nashville Education Association, takes issue with the way Dean went about funding KIPP's renovation and insists there are other schools in the same neighborhood that badly need repair.

"It's in essence not a Metro school," Huth said. "It's being leased to KIPP. The only reason it was available was because Metro stopped using it because of its condition. If the facility doesn't meet KIPP's needs, KIPP has the opportunity to seek another facility on the open market — that's what other charter schools have done."

This year, the city budgeted $40 million for school renovations and upgrades, not including the plans for KIPP. During his tenure, the mayor has set aside about $100 million for capital spending related to schools.

Parents at other aging schools have mixed feelings about the renovation. It's great KIPP is getting help, they say, but meanwhile the leaky roof at Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet has damaged classrooms, there's not a functional gym, and students eat lunch in the hallways because there isn't enough room in the cafeteria.